“If we don’t have crop diversity, we don’t have food security. If we don’t have food security, we aren’t going to have physical security." Cary Fowler talks to RAFI about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and new documentary, Seeds of Time.

More than 100 farm organizations, scientists, businesses and nonprofits, including Organic Seed Alliance and Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, have signed a letter urging Congress to support Senator Tester’s amendment to the Senate Farm Bill.
The proposed Farm Bill currently on the Congress floor fails to direct more research dollars to classical breeding projects that would result in the benefit of publicly owned plant cultivars and animal breeds.

The full Senate is taking up the Farm Bill debate today, and, right now, there is no language in the bill that protects funding for classical breeding and research that results in publicly owned varieties. If the Senate Farm Bill goes through in its current form, American farmers and researchers looking for publicly owned crop varieties will find themselves with almost no options.

This year’s Farm Bill should direct more research dollars to classical breeding projects that result in finished, publicly owned plant and animal varieties, according to a letter from more than 100 farm organizations and scientists.